Welcome to the Academic Armageddon website where we aim to bring you the best in febrile futility and occupational disease from the higher education sector. From deep within the decomposing portakabins of the newer university sector we will attempt to lighten the load imposed by shibboleths such as learning outcomes, competencies and transferable skills. Where educational environments have been heavily contaminated with 'quality' as a makeshift for intellectual substance, there is typically little hope for those of us trapped on the teaching treadmill. In between servicing the students' soft cerebral matter you might find some of the enclosed material to be of interest.

 

 

Arty stuff

 

Re-location

 

Ever tried to concert a derelict factory into an art gallery? We did and it was great fun but enormously hard work The website is still going I think at

http://www.re-location.org.uk   There were buildings to reconstruct, rubbish to shovel out, junk to dispose of and new people to welcome to the project and it finally opened to the public in September 2003. See if you can find the pictures of me hanging up and having an angle grinder run over my tender bits. An art show a day keeps the doctor away. 

 

INTERVENTION

If you’re interested in arty farty stuff here’s a plug for something you might find entertaining. Emma Shinybeetle and I were involved in a community arts project here in Birmingham which staged an exhibition in February 2002. It was a street of derelict Victorian houses which is going to be demolished, but before the council did that, this project involved setting them up as installation pieces, with indoor waterfalls, performances, parts of African villages, bits of 18^th century slave ships and so on. Although the exhibition was in February and is now over the website is still going. Of course, there were loads more people involved than just the two of us. Amongst the halfway-famous people there was Hunt Emerson (www.largecow.demon.co.uk) who draws for Fortean Times, and Graham Higgins (www.pokkettz.demon.co.uk) who is one of the people who illustrates Terry Pratchett. And loads of other people.

INTERVENTION is still online at

www.sozocollective.org.uk

(oops, it seems to be down at the moment but I'll keep checking)